alsa via82xx (via8233 and via686) (ac97 codec) solution

kraylus · l33t Joined: 07 Jun 2002 Posts: 648 Location: ft.worth.tx

i figured that title would make a killer search result for all the poor bastards like me who've been having problems with that sound chipset.

follow this link:

http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/doc-php/template.php3?company=VIA&card=&chip=via8233a&module=via82xx

if you follow the instructions explicitly using alsa-0.9.0-rc6 or greater you will have 100% success. for months i had struggled with alsa and this chipset and was able to get only a mediocre resolution. so i stole my wife's soundblaster live. now she wanted it back.

i figured i'd skip the gentoo instructions and go straight to the source i had found whilst looking in the alsa matrix one lonely afternoon at work. i followed those instructions and in under 10 minutes, i had a perfectly working sound system. works with all my apps so far (unreal tourney and xmms

) and i couldn't be happier.

there's also alternate methods of configurating if you have problems with the defaults in that document. one thing that i had to do was to inject the alsa driver into portage. dunno if it was really necessary, but i did it anyway. i also changed the /etc/devfsd.conf file to give audio a permission of 777. probably not necessary, but this system is on an internal network so im not concerned.

im thinking of adding the exact experience to the docs forum.

hope this works out for those who had the problems.

ryan

p.s. sound is crystal clear
_________________
I used gentoo BEFORE it was cool.

pilla · Posted: Wed Dec 25, 2002 9:58 pm Post subject:

Moving to Documentation, Tips & Tricks.

EDIT: Moved to Multimedia, as ALSA is now in the kernel. 2004.DEC. --pjp
_________________
"I'm just very selective about the reality I choose to accept." -- Calvin

El_Presidente_Pufferfish · Veteran Joined: 11 Jul 2002 Posts: 1179 Location: Seattle

What kind of problems did you have?
I followed the gentoo guide pretty much and it worked for me
but it sounds pretty bad to me

jufoa · Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2002 12:02 am Post subject:

i did also follow the gentoo guide and everything worked perfectly.

is there away to enable the spdif output?

slartibartfasz · Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2002 2:30 pm Post subject:

just because it took me a while to figure it out:

after reemerging alsa i couldnt locate my snd-via8233 module (which worked perfectly before) - the link posted above contained the solution:

the via8233 and the via686 drivers have been merged and renamed to via82xx (where 'xx' is NOT some number but actually two 'x' :wink:

)

so if u have problems with the update change the name in /etc/modules.d/alsa

after that i unmuted it again with amixer and voila - btw, it would be nice if the unmute part would make it into the ebuild - would kill a lot of FAQs hehe

H-Pi · Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2002 4:03 pm Post subject:

I updated alsa, renamed the module in the config, only skipped the option= line in /etc/modules.d/alsa and did it the new file suggested me in a commented line, and it worked the same as the old one after I unmuted the mixer and pcm

I don't like to follow the instructions on the alsa site because you have to do the configures and makes and stuff yourself, while I prefer using protage, so you can nicely delete them or see if there's an update of the alsa-driver

I wonder in what kind of way the gentoo-guide didn't work for you

DArtagnan

kraylus · l33t Joined: 07 Jun 2002 Posts: 648 Location: ft.worth.tx